A Rs 120-cr WhatsApp message to fight fake news

WhatsApp, the world’s largest messaging platform, has spent about Rs 120 crore on print, television and radio advertising in the past five months as it seeks to combat the circulation of fake news, according to top media buyers.
Some messages shared on the platform have allegedly incited the lynching of people in various parts of the country, prompting the Facebook-owned unit to launch the advertising campaign in India, its first anywhere in the world.
The amount, most of which is being spent on print advertising, is expected to increase as the second phase of the ad campaign is scheduled to be launched before the end of the March quarter, closer to the Lok Sabha elections, which are likely to be held in April-May.
“The amount spent on mass media advertising could go higher as the campaign is still continuing,” said a media agency executive who didn’t want to be identified. The first phase of the campaign, which began ahead of recent state elections, will run through January 10. In comparison, Coca-Cola is said to have spent upwards of Rs 100 crore on advertising during last year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament.
Without commenting on the specific amount earmarked for the campaign, a WhatsApp spokesperson said that there is “significant investment to run this campaign across the country... We hope to reach our expansive user base, which is also why we launched the ads in 10 regional languages. The ads we have already run were designed to reach 100 million people in cities and remote areas of India”.
‘Better to Self-regulate’
The company that was acquired by Facebook for $19 billion in 2014 is spending more than 80% of the amount on print advertising, 15% on television ads and the rest on radio spots, according to data sourced from media agencies.
WhatsApp had a total of 32,475 ad insertions — the number of times an ad is aired on TV — between the start date of December 3 and December 28, according to the latest data collected by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India.
The Facebook-owned firm has been under fire from the Indian government and others over fake news and false information being circulated on its messaging platform. Such messages have allegedly incited mobs, triggering multiple cases of lynching across India.
The company, which has at least 200 million users in India, rolled out the campaign after the government issued a warning, asking it to immediately stop the spread of irresponsible and explosive messages filled with rumours and provocation on its platform.
“Just the way alcohol brands have taken the cause of safe driving and tobacco companies openly acknowledge their harmful impact on health, social platforms will have to take on the cause of data, privacy and fake news,” said Saurabh Varma, CEO, Publicis Communications India. “It is better to self-regulate rather than have a policy thrust down your throat.”
The campaign, which was rolled out in early December, focused on “ordinary people” teaching someone close to them how they can avoid becoming propagators of misinformation and is titled ‘Share Joy, Not Rumours’.
Apart from the campaign against false information, WhatsApp has also announced measures to help users identify fake news. The company introduced a feature to identify whether a message was created by the sender or came from someone else by labelling forwarded messages. Additionally, WhatsApp has declared that it continues to strengthen antispam detection capabilities to ban accounts that engage in unwanted automated activity.
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